"Neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments, affect millions of children worldwide, and some diagnoses seem to be increasing in frequency. Industrial chemicals that injure the developing brain are among the known causes for this rise in prevalence. In 2006, we did a systematic review and identified five industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants: lead, methylmercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, arsenic, and toluene. Since 2006, epidemiological studies have documented six additional developmental neurotoxicants—manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers."

Yet many in positions of power ignore this obvious fact. In the U.S. and Canada the decision to add this neurotoxic chemical to the water is made by local governments. As the science rolls in, such as that presented above, more and more of them have been deciding against it in recent years. The response of the establishment appears to be the use of greater force and centralization of decision making power, out of the hands of local communities to behind closed doors.

While they use the argument that the issue is too complicated for local council members to understand, centralized government science agencies do not have a good historical record of making the healthiest decisions for the people. One might argue, and the evidence is strong, that the more centralized a decision making body the more subject it is to influence by money and corporate power and the less subject it is to the wishes and will of the people being governed.

A team of researchers from the School of Dentistry at The University of Manchester, working under the auspices of the Cochrane Collaboration recently studied the complete body of evidence claiming that water fluoridation can reduce cavities in teeth. They found a number of problems with that claim. They sum up their concerns here:

"There is very little contemporary evidence, meeting the review's inclusion criteria, that has evaluated the effectiveness of water fluoridation for the prevention of caries.

Our confidence in the size of the effect estimates is limited by the observational nature of the study designs, the high risk of bias within the studies and, importantly, the applicability of the evidence to current lifestyles.

There is a significant association between dental fluorosis and fluoride level."

The source of much of the fluoride used in water fluoridation is waste product from industrial processes.

"Hexafluorosilicic acid has a distinctive sour taste and pungent smell. It is mainly produced as a precursor to aluminum trifluoride and synthetic cryolite. It is commonly used as a source of fluoride for water fluoridation. Concentrated hexafluorosilicic acid is corrosive, highly toxic and can attack the skin, but in everyday use, it is so diluted as to be harmless."

While Wikipedia claims it is harmless in diluted concentrations, they offer no evidence. We now know that even tiny concentrations of toxic chemicals can have cumulative negative effects on neurodevelopment, endocrine production and other important systems of the body. One molecule can do damage. However many molecules get into the body do that much damage. This is problematic for three reasons. First, if they get into children they affect development, which can lead to a cascading, multiplying, even compounding effect. Second, if they accumulate they continue doing damage, so each molecule becomes more and more potent over time. Third, many of our chemical feedback loops are very sensitive. While a small concentration of a toxin may seem to have a small impact, in fact its impact is magnified by the fact that it can distort the entire feedback loop and completely skew normal chemical signaling in the body. This leads to a variety of untracked downstream effects that we are currently experiencing but have yet to directly trace to specific toxins.

We know we are sick. We have a pretty good idea why. We can either stop doing the things we are fairly certain are making us sick or we can continue to do them, become more ill with each passing day, and wait until the proof of what we already know is incontrovertible and the damage has been completed beyond repair to make the necessary changes.

"Hexafluorosilicic acid can release hydrogen fluoride when evaporated, so it has similar risks. It is corrosive and may cause fluoride poisoning; inhalation of the vapors may cause lung edema. Like hydrogen fluoride, it attacks glass and stoneware. The lethal dose in 50% of mice (LD50) value of hexafluorosilicic acid is 70 mg/kg."

Fluorine itself has not been shown to be essential to human health. In fact it has only been found naturally occurring in plants as a defense mechanism against being eaten by animals.

"Fluorine is not essential for humans or other mammals; small amounts may be beneficial for bone strength, but this has not been definitively established. As there are many environmental sources of trace fluorine, the possibility of a fluorine deficiency could apply only to artificial diets. Natural organofluorines have been found in microorganisms and plants but not animals. The most common is fluoroacetate, which is used as a defense against herbivores by at least 40 plants in Africa, Australia and Brazil."

In short, there is minimal evidence that adding fluoride to the water has any positive benefit. There is clear evidence that it is toxic in a number of ways. It is not a human nutrient and is toxic to animals. Even plants know this and use if for this purpose. If it does have some benefit in protecting teeth people can make that decision for themselves and their children.

To poison everybody in the hope that it might help a few people meet one parameter on a form is bureaucracy at its most clear. This is what bureaucrats do. They rule this country and now, at least in Canada, they are attempting to tighten the reigns.